Chapter 7 - Tense

"Hold on," Lei said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "That's not right."

"What's not right, Lei Lei?" Little Mei said.

"Look at his eyes," Little Chao muttered. "They are glowing."

"He's really the Heavenly Cook, I told you!" Snake swept them with an excited gaze, then turned to Lei and bowed deeply. "You must feel exhausted after cooking those miraculous dishes, Big Brother Lei. Why don't you rest here? We can go clean your house if you want."

"My house? Ah, yes…" Lei said as he stared at the other children. A shiver ran down his spine when he checked them one by one.

[Yuan Mei: Mortal, 1st Step of Body Tempering Stage.]

[Zhong Chao: Mortal, 1st Step of Body Tempering Stage.]

[Haou Bolin: Mortal.]

…

…

He breathed a sigh of relief when it became clear that not all of them had become cultivators overnight. Only Little Mei, Little Chao, and Snake had stepped into the ranks of the Body Tempering Stage, but they didn't look different.

Most of them are still mortals… But what about these three? How did they become cultivators with just a simple dish?

It wasn't quite clear to him how many minor circles he'd completed before blacking out, but he reckoned it must be around three or four. So he couldn't be considered a real cultivator, not before he'd managed to complete nine minor circles.

Something about the roots, perhaps? Maybe unlike me, these kids have a real talent for cultivation.

That sounded like a sensible explanation. Some medicinal pills worked in a similar fashion, after all. Once eaten, they dissolved into waves of Qi that slowly expanded one's meridians, basically working as a replacement for the Qi that'd normally be absorbed through simple meditation.

"Did you all try that fried rice?" Lei asked. If there was one thing he'd learned from the last night's episode, it was that his fried rice was leaps and bounds above that normal enhanced rice in spirituality.

"Mm!" Little Mei nodded as she scratched the black cat's fur with her nails. "It was delicious! We all tried it!"

Then it's not the fried rice alone. These three are really something else.

"Do you feel any difference?" Lei asked. He didn't know what he should do in this situation. He was by no means an expert on the topic of cultivation and certainly didn't have the experience to guide these little devils toward the right path.

But let alone answering him, they didn't even seem to know they'd become more than mere mortals after eating those dishes. Granted, the Body Tempering Stage wasn't a stage that turned simple human beings into mountain-punching, river-crushing forces of nature, but it did boost one's physical abilities.

"Snake, lift that rock for me," Lei said, pointing at a rock that was thrice the size of a normal brick. It must've weighed at least thirty or forty pounds. Nothing too crazy, but a twelve-year-old kid should find it hard to lift such a rock.

"Rock?" Snake raised an eyebrow at him. "I can easily lift it, but what will I get in return? If you let me eat more of those dishes, then I can lift all the rocks here!"

"Fine." Lei nodded, waving his words off.

There was an almost crazed glint about his eyes as Snake stepped near the rock, and tapped a finger on it.

Is this the first sign of a would-be cultivation maniac? Am I witnessing a rare genius?

Lei chuckled at the thought. This whole thing was so ridiculous that a part of him still thought he was in the middle of a bad trip. Overdosing on spiritual energy couldn't have been as simple a matter as dozing off.

But when Snake raised the rock with two hands, barely straining, smiling up at him as though he'd lifted a nail-sized pebble, Lei understood that everything was way too real.

"That's nothing!" Little Chao said, staring him down. He huffed and puffed his way through the ruins of the house, found a bigger rock, dusted off its surface in the manner of a true weightlifter, and hauled the damned thing. "See?" he said, his smile straining behind the big rock. "I can do it better!"

The two released the rocks, and they thumped on the ground, rolling sideways, sending little clouds of dust up the walls.

"Were you two…" Lei said, gulping nervously. "Always this strong?"

Little Chao and Snake exchanged glances before shrugging. Snake then gave him a confident shake of his head. "I've never tried to lift a rock this big, Big Brother Lei. But can't say I'm surprised."

"I've tried once," Little Chao said, eyes down at that big rock. "But it is my first time succeeding."

Lei nodded. This sudden increase in their strength wasn't anything groundbreaking but was expected from a first-step Body Tempering Stage cultivator. At the ninth step, cultivators could lift four to five hundred pounds with ease, the amount changing depending on the manuals and practices they'd use in the process.

What am I going to do with these brats?

He sighed out a long breath.

There is the annual assessment of the Empire's Own, but that's still months away and only happens in big cities like Lanzhou.

Every year the Eastern Chu Empire sent its guards and officers to the big cities to unearth the potential of the masses. The few children who had been blessed with talent and opportunity would get recruited either into the Empire's Own, academies, or righteous sects.

But those spots were usually reserved for the children of the high-born folk and prominent figures of the cities. Lei didn't know if he could slip these little devils into the mix.

His head throbbed with a budding headache as he considered all the possibilities. Though he didn't want to admit it, there was nothing he could do right now. He lacked the means and money to even find a house for these children, let alone sketching a real future for them.

"I'll try to think of something," he muttered, more to himself than to the children. The only thing he could rely on was the system, and for that, he needed more spiritual ingredients.

He turned and regarded each kid with a heavy gaze.

"You don't worry yourself about us, Big Brother Lei," said Snake, his chin high. "You can count on me!"

Lei gave him a strict nod. "Take care of yourselves, and stay away from trouble while I think this through."

Then he trudged back to his house.

…..

Just when Lei stepped inside the house, a strong hand grabbed him by the collar, yanked him closer, and flattened his back on the cold wall, an elbow pressing tight into his chest. "Who are you?!" Fatty Lou growled, his eyes burning with cold fury.

"W-What are you doing?" Lei said, caught backhanded against the sudden assault, flailing against the strong hold. "Put me down!"

Fatty Lou swept him a fierce gaze and stepped back, but didn't lower his hand as though he was ready to strike at any moment. The fat under his chin wriggled impatiently as he regarded Lei with blatant suspicion.

"Are you insane?" Lei said as he shook his head to gather himself. He already had enough shit to deal with, and now this fatty was trying to kill him.

"When we first met, what was the first thing I'd told you?" Fatty Lou frowned at him.

"What did—"

"Answer me!" Fatty Lou raised his hand, glaring out into his eyes. "What did I tell you the first time we met?"

"Y-You've told me that I've not enough meat in my bones!" Lei sputtered, the man's eyes almost drilling painful holes around his body.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

All the tension left Fatty Lou as he breathed a long sigh. "Good. You're really you, then. For a second I'd feared some demonic bastard seized your soul." Then he turned to the empty plates. "Now, can you tell me how in the heavens did you cook something like that?"

"That's the thing I wanted to show you," Lei said, rubbing his neck. He'd figured showing Fatty Lou would be the easiest and most effective way for him to understand, but seemed he hadn't thought it through.

Should've known I'd get a strong reaction. It's not like the place has dozens of chefs cooking spiritual dishes.

"I thought I was going to die," Fatty Lou said, wincing a step back and leaning to the table, his face easing into a questioning frown. "Five minor-circles… Do you know what that means?"

"I know—"

"Five fucking circles, Brother Lei!" Fatty Lou said. "Four more, then I would've stepped into the ranks of the Body Tempering Stage cultivators. I've spent years trying to sense the Qi around me, but I have never been able to get a single whiff of it! Then suddenly, you tell me you've something to say, then fry some rice that happens to be packed with all the fucking Qi in the world! How's that possible?"

"You have to trust me on this one," Lei said, scratching the back of his neck. The system and its screens were as alien as phones and planes for these people. Hell, even he didn't know what to make of it.

"Where and how… These questions are not important," Lei said. There was no point talking about the reasons where the result was what really mattered. "This gift of mine can do that… I mean, can influence the spiritual ingredients used in a dish. If we can find more—"

"So that's what happened the other day when you'd clutched your chest and crashed down at the stall?" Fatty Lou asked. "That's when this… boon of yours appeared." He snapped his fingers. "Just like that, eh?"

"More or less," Lei said and smiled slightly. "I think I've been struck with a sudden enlightenment. You know like those legends that have all the lights and a far-away voice of some higher being, whispering the grand truth into one's ears."

On some level, this was exactly what happened to him. Though he knew he'd get something after completing that first mission, it'd still been way beyond his wildest dreams.

"That makes sense," Fatty Lou mumbled as he started pacing around the room. "You must've been blessed by Heavens in some shape or form. I've heard such things happen to people. What did they call it? A fortuitous encounter, was it?"

Yes, that's true. This is a damned xianxia world, after all.

"Exactly!" Lei pressed right away. "Must be something like that. We can use this, Brother Lou! We just need to find a way to get more spiritual ingredients, that's all."

Fatty Lou shook his head, "You heard Uncle Zhang. Those people won't sell their precious spirit rice to us. Even if they agreed to sell, we don't have the money for it."

"If you can convince Master Li to give us a loan, then…"

"Forget it. That old man's stubborn as a goat. He won't give a single coin to us, that stingy bastard. If we're going to do this, we'll do it on our own."

A tense silence followed their conversation. Lei racked his brains for possible solutions, but the ones he thought of were mostly about money or might. With enough money, they could venture deep inside the Empire, perhaps to an Immortal City where everything was more or less spiritual in origin.

But even if they could somehow make the journey without encountering monstrous beasts or stray cultivators, such a venture would cost them dozens of Imperial gold.

I've never seen a golden coin in my new life.

The same was true for the Alchemists' Guild. In theory, everyone could buy a medicinal pill from the Empire's Alchemists' Guild. The former Emperor himself had declared some years ago that the Eastern Chu Empire shall provide all its people the means to buy and trade such important sources.

Though he'd probably done that to prevent the monopoly of certain cultivation clans and sects.

That didn't mean the pills would be cheap, however. They were, in all things considered, heavenly treasures in the eyes of the mortal folk, things that they couldn't hope to ever buy even if they spent their lifetime earnings. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but a single Body Tempering Pill cost about three imperial gold. Considering Lei earned about thirty to fifty copper coins in a good day, he would have to work for weeks to even afford a single pill, as the value of an imperial gold coin was about a thousand copper coins.

And this was on the account that such pills would be available in the Alchemists' Guild, as they were often reserved for people with deep pockets and deeper connections in the right places.

On the other hand, if they could find enough ingredients to boost their cultivation to the Body Tempering Stage, then they could go straight inside the Adventurer's Guild and become adventurers.

There were all sorts of missions in the guild that didn't involve a dangerous fight, or a life-or-death battle against the monstrous beasts, as even city folk could put up their own missions with providing proper rewards.

Hold on...

Lei glanced at Fatty Lou. "What if we post missions in the Adventurer's Guild?"

"Missions? What sort of a reward— Wait!" Fatty Lou's eyes glinted. "Don't tell me you're thinking of giving a spiritual dish as a reward?"

Lei nodded smugly. "That's some generous reward if you'd asked me. We let the bastards do all that hard work, gathering the ingredients for us, and then we'll give them a portion as a reward."

"Ingredients…" Fatty Lou frowned in thought. "It's a good plan, but I don't think they'd find any spirit rice growing in a forest. And how does one cultivate spirit rice, anyway? What, you just blow your breath into the seeds, or spit on them?"

"It doesn't have to be rice, anything spiritual would do the job just fine," Lei said, scratching his chin. "I mean, I can even work with some spiritual weed. Nothing too crazy, just simple weed with an extra touch of the Heavens. You think they don't have those?"

Fatty Lou shrugged. "Yeah, no… I'm sure there are plenty of spiritual things in the Darkloom Forest for people mad enough to brave its dangers. But still, we must keep your boon a secret if we don't want some bastard to know how spiritual your dishes can get."

"You're right. We need a middleman that'll post the missions for us," Lei said, staring at Fatty Lou.

When his brother-in-arms didn't take the hint, the strange eye contest stretched for a couple of seconds before, finally, Fatty Lou jerked a thumb back at his chest.

"You want me to be the middleman?" Fatty Lou's eyes were wide as saucers. "You know I'm a rather famous butcher around this part of the town, right? You can ask all those ladies. They often say I give the strongest impressions if you know what I mean."

Lei almost rolled his eyes at that. "I didn't mean you. Just find someone. You've enough shady friends in the town, no? Fetch one of those. Tell them we'll pay in coppers."

"Yeah, right…" Fatty Lou scratched the back of his neck before nodding. "Give me some time to think. I'll pay a visit to your stall tomorrow, then we'll talk about the details."

With that, Lei sent him off and threw himself over to the bed. He'd fallen asleep after getting high on spiritual energy but didn't feel rested at all, and he had to be in good shape if he wanted to keep grinding the system with his dishes.

…..